Call me lazy, but I do not like to do any yard work at all. Maintaining grass, trees, flowers, and bushes around my house has to be the absolute worst part of being a homeowner. I do not want to waste my weekends attending to such things. For the life of me figure out why other people find those types of chores “relaxing”.
Sweating my butt off in the blazing hot sun while I pull weeds or cut the grass is not something I could ever find relaxing in a million years, which is why I gladly pay for lawn maintenance services.
There are a few different landscaping companies in this town but I chose Turfco. I did the smart thing and compared rates before I signed up, and though they each had similar fees, I was able to talk the company into giving me a 15 percent discount on lawn maintenance services for signing a one-year contract. Now they come in once a week to cut the grass in summer. They rake the leaves in fall, shovel the snow in winter, and plant the sod and flowers in spring. I don’t have to do anything at all, which is just the way I like it!
Most lawn care services will try to get you to commit to a contract because that makes things much easier on them. They’ll know exactly how to schedule their workers, and they’ll be able to count on a certain amount of income. But you can make tweaks to the standard contract. Such as asking them to come only during the summer or only twice a month instead of every week — to get the rates down.
And there are other ways to save money on lawn maintenance services. For example, you can just pay an enterprising neighborhood kid $15 or $20 to cut the grass and do some other minor chores when necessary, or you can find a handyman in your area willing to do the same type of work on a freelance basis. These freelancers are usually far more flexible than professional lawn maintenance services. They’ll come out on short notice and won’t require a contract. And usually put forth extra effort to make sure you call them again when needed.
Paying for lawn maintenance services isn’t just about getting out of doing disagreeable chores. It’s about having extra time to spend with your family on weekends. Or about being able to watch baseball or football with your buddies instead of having to worry about the yard. Sure, some people would rather just do these things on their own in order to save a few bucks. But if you’ve got the cash to spare, why not let someone else do the work for you?